In The News
LAWYERS LEND EARS FOR CLREP
(APR. 15, 2015)
Nearly upstaging Vignarajah’s story about prosecuting the case of a murdered 12-year-old was his shock at discovering his own high school mock trial coach, David Boyer, in the audience.
“If he gave me the courtesy of telling me he was coming, this story would have been about him,” Vignarajah quipped before mining a deeper sentiment. “Long before I had the privilege of being editor of the [Harvard] Law Review or working at the [United States] Supreme Court, it was Mr. Boyer who taught me to love the law. So, thank you.”
MD. ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS SUPREME COURT MUST OVERTURN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BANS NATIONWIDE
(BALTIMORE SUN, MAR. 9, 2015)
“Contained in the Attorney General’s report are illustrations of prejudice and misinformation that make it clear that to ask same-sex couples to be patient asks too much,” said Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah in a statement. “The promise of equality has long been within the province of the Supreme Court to protect.”
BEST OF 2014: LAWYER OF THE YEAR
(CENTER MARYLAND, JAN. 5, 2015)
“Vignarajah proved a superb choice to take on the city’s most complex cases requiring keen investigative, communication and organizational skills…. Vignarajah has proved the worth of the Major Investigations Unit, which pursues offenders committing a disproportionate share of the city’s violent crimes…. Getting dangerous thugs and career criminals off city streets is the objective. So far, Vignarajah’s team seems to be succeeding.”
FINDING MOTIVATION IN UNLIKELY PLACES
(THE DAILY RECORD, DEC. 31, 2014)
“Professor Vignarajah is a brilliant legal mind and will serve the citizens of Maryland exceptionally well in this new role!”
TOP CITY PROSECUTOR, O’MALLEY AIDE JOIN AG’S OFFICE
(BALTIMORE SUN, DEC. 30, 2014)
Prior to joining the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office in 2010, Vignarajah, 38, was a federal prosecutor in Maryland and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer after graduation from Harvard Law, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review…. In a statement, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts called Vignarajah a “once-in-a-generation lawyer and leader” and said his unit took on the “toughest cases against the city’s worst criminals.”
BALTIMORE-AREA DOGFIGHT RING BROKEN UP
(WASHINGTON POST, DEC. 23, 2014)
Thiru Vignarajah, Major Crimes Unit chief for the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office, called the Baltimore-area operation an “unforgiving underworld” in which dogs were trained to fight for entertainment and financial gain.
What Jeff Sessions Could Learn from His New Deputy
(VOX. APRIL. 26. 2017)
"When it comes to fighting crime, Sessions seems to be dusting off the failed playbook of the 1980s. But in Baltimore, prosecutors helped drive down murder and violent crime rates by concentrating on gang leaders and gun violations, not by vilifying victims of addiction, getting tough on marijuana, or reviving policies of mass incarceration for petty offenses. Moreover, mass deportation is no better a strategy to identify and incapacitate violent criminals than mass incarceration was to fight the spread of drugs in America’s inner cities. What has happened in Baltimore the past two years is wrenching and tragic, but the answer is not to disregard the lessons from the preceding decade of progress."
Mayor Pugh Presents Transition Report Announces Recommendations for Building One Baltimore
(Catherine Pugh Mayoral Website. Oct. 13. 2016)
“What we do today, what direction we take, when it comes to public safety are decisions of life and death,” noted Thiru Vignarajah, Public Safety Committee Member and Partner at DLA Piper LLP. “Crime has touched every corner of our City, and we have to confront this challenge like the urgent crisis it has become. Everyone has a right to be safe, on every street, at every hour. And, we simply cannot afford to lose any more children, any more fathers and mothers, to the cycles of violence and addiction, to the revolving doors of poverty and prisons. Our recommendations reflect the Mayor’s central mission — the bloodshed must end, a problem of this dimension demands ambitious solutions and immediate action, and we can’t do this alone — everyone has to work together and do their part.”
PROSECUTOR’S COMMITMENT MAKES A CITY NEIGHBORHOOD SAFER
(BALTIMORE SUN, SEPT. 18, 2015)
“It was a reign of terror,” says Vignarajah, a former federal prosecutor who had clerked for a Supreme Court justice after graduating from Harvard. “It was one of the most violent areas in the history of the city, ruled by one of the most ruthless gangs in the history of the city.”
TRANSLATING “EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL” TO ROUTINE POLICING
(WYPR, SEPT. 11, 2015)
Maryland’s attorney general followed up with guidelines for law enforcement in this state, declaring that officers should not consider race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion or disability in routine police activities. The main author of those Maryland guidelines, Deputy Attorney General Thiruvendran Vignarajah is here with us to discuss them. He’s a Baltimore native who was Maryland assistant U.S. attorney in the violent crimes division before coming to his current post.
AG BRIAN FROSH RELEASES MEMO DESIGNED TO END RACIAL PROFILING BY POLICE
(AUG. 25, 2015)
“Discriminatory profiling is not only ineffective and unwise – it is incompatible with the promise of equal justice enshrined in our state and federal constitutions. Maryland may be the first to issue statewide guidance of this kind, but at no time has there been a greater need for unity, uniformity, and unequivocal clarity on this subject,” said Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah, the lead author of the guidance memorandum. “The Attorney General’s guidance helps ensure that the pledge of equal protection is embodied, in principle and in practice, by the conduct of police and the lived experiences of citizens, in every neighborhood and of every background, who form the rich mosaic of Maryland.”
A DEVASTATING BLOW
(BALTIMORE SUN, AUG. 22, 2015)
After years of uneven progress, the press conference represented the city's finest hour in its fight to combat these brutal crimes. Thiru Vignarajah, then chief of the Major Crimes Unit, outlined the extraordinary effort and resources that multiple agencies, including animal control, the police department and, of course, the state's attorney's office, devoted to the meticulous investigation, which spanned 18 months.
